Theory of Speech Acts

J. L. Austin’s most celebrated contribution to philosophy is his theory of speech acts. And he distinguishes three different acts: locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary.


The locutionary act:

It is the act of making a meaningful utterance, a stretch of spoken language that is preceded by silence and followed by silence or a change of speaker—also known as a locution or an utterance act. It may furthermore be analyzed into a phonetic act (the act of uttering certain noises), a phatic act (the act of uttering words, that is, sounds as conforming to a certain vocabulary and grammar), and a rhetic act (the act of using these words with a certain meaning – sense or reference).


The perlocutionary act:

Corresponds to the effects brought about by performing an illocutionary act, to its consequences (intentional or non-intentional) on the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the participants.

"The illocutionary force is the speaker's intent. [It is] a true 'speech act' such as informing, ordering, warning, undertaking."

Unlike locutionary acts, perlocutionary acts are external to the performance; they are inspiring, persuading, or deterring.


The illocutionary act:

Refers to the use of a sentence to express an attitude with a certain function or "force," called an illocutionary force, which differs from locutionary acts in that they carry a certain urgency and appeal to the meaning and direction of the speaker. It corresponds to the force that an utterance has in a particular context: order, request, entreaty, or challenge.


Example:
[A man talking to his co-worker]
Can you pass my number to her?

The locutionary act: Question itself
The perlocutionary act: Co-worker passes his number to the female in question
The illocutionary act: The request to pass his number to the female



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